My father-in-law’s ‘19 AT4 UCA joint sheared two weeks ago. Around 35k miles with a 2” level bottom spacer. It let loose at 75mph and sent him into the ditch, nearly caused him to roll.
When he told me it snapped I started asking questions: stock UCA’s, 33” Nitto tires, and he finally tells me 2” spacer installed by a local shop. He farms out of his AT4 so it’s seen some rough ass roads and off road use, hauling a big ass Polaris fourwheeler. I figured it was just him being rough on it, he’s been known to treat his vehicles like ******. But the 2” level and stock UCA was the real culprit. He didn’t like the factory rake so that’s the reason for the level initially.
Three weeks ago I installed Cognito UCA’s and Bilstein 5100’s on my ‘21 AT4 and he thought I was silly for doing that to a brand new month old truck. Now he’s asking where he can buy them. I suggested he throw the ****ing spacer away and do it right this time. Mine isn’t perfectly level, but honestly the slight rake isn’t noticeable like before and I’m not going kill myself.
The companies selling these spacers without correct UCA’s are doing their customers a disservice and are likely putting people in danger. I get the people installing them should know better and a lot of customers don’t know or don’t care, but it’s really not worth potentially trashing a $60k truck and almost killing someone over it.